That afternoon, everything seemed to unfold as usual.

My friends and I arrived at school like we always did. We were pretty much the quintessential troublemakers—the kind of guys everyone else steered clear of. Was it cool? I suppose so. But regardless of what we were, we still showed up on time and "complied" with school rules.

The clock struck 2 PM, and the school gates began to close. Latecomers had no choice but to turn back, except for one notable exception—Hana. The daughter of the president of the largest tech conglomerate in Asia, she was the school’s queen bee: beautiful, popular, smart, wealthy, and powerful. Those were the words that summed her up.

Stepping out of a car that must’ve cost more than a hundred billion, the security guard who was earlier scolding the latecomers now hurriedly opened the gate by hand instead of using the remote, too scared to scratch the car. All the boys who didn’t have girlfriends couldn’t help but stare at Hana, mesmerized as if she had them under a spell. I used to be like them, but the difference was, I had more guts.

I once asked Hana out and was flatly rejected. Thinking about it still stings, but with her family background, I couldn’t handle it in the "usual" way.

My friends and I moved away from the crowd and headed to class. They were still engrossed in their chatter about Hana, which only added to my irritation. But thankfully, my seat was far from hers. I sat in the last row on the left, while she was in the front row on the right.

Being closer to her would probably drive me nuts.

When I entered the classroom, I sat down while my friends gathered to play games. The bookworms glanced my way and whispered something to each other, likely not saying anything good about me. Not that it was surprising. It would be strange if no one was talking smack about a guy like me who always used his fists to solve problems. Still, seeing them keep glancing at me and murmuring, even if it wasn’t about me, was seriously annoying. Should I warm up by taking on one of them?

Without hesitation, I stood up, walked over to the group, grabbed one of them by the collar, and gave him a few punches.

That’ll teach you to talk behind my back!

“Hell yeah, Ajin! Give it to him, ha ha!”

I kept slapping his face and punching his gut as my friends cheered me on. But the guy didn’t cry, nor did he show any anger or fear. Instead, he just had this empty expression, his body limp, drained of life. His mouth was drooling, and his eyes were dark and dull, like someone who hadn’t slept in days. I figured his junkie-like appearance was probably because he stayed up all night studying.

“Overstudying is bad news,” I thought. Being diligent is good, but overdoing it can be dangerous. Staying up all night to study does nothing but invite serious health problems.

“Ajin, is bullying the only thing you can do?”

As I was busy beating the poor insomniac, Hana appeared. With her ugly purple hair, smelly and disheveled uniform, and a face twisted in anger, she stepped into the classroom, glaring directly at me and scolding, “Stop bullying your classmates!”—though I had never actually done that.

I let the nerd go and quietly returned to my seat; it wasn’t the right time yet. Someday, I’d make her kneel and beg for mercy.

Riiiiing!

The bell signaled the start of class, and everyone returned to their seats, waiting for the teacher. I sat at the back of the class near the window, the classic spot for main characters in manga.

“I… I’m sorry…”

A girl sitting in front of me accidentally dropped her pencil, and it “luckily” landed right at my feet. I pressed it firmly underfoot. This girl wasn’t just an ordinary student. She was actually a demon disguised as a human, with white hair, four eyes, and a face that exuded a seductive aura, seemingly designed to manipulate men.

Why do I say she’s a demon?

There’s no need to explain much because this idea had been ingrained in me—and everyone else—from a young age, through a fairy tale that didn’t even have an author’s name. The story was about an ugly witch with white hair who used magic to transform into a beautiful woman, then seduced men. Two kings from neighboring countries fell in love with her, and each wanted to claim her for himself, leading to a war between the two nations. Just because of one woman, a massive armed conflict—the biggest in history—erupted, taking millions of lives and causing severe economic damage. After that, no one ever saw the witch again, as if she had vanished from the world. That’s the gist of the story.

Since I was born, I’ve never seen anyone with such pure white hair as this girl’s, so it’s no wonder people think she’s the witch’s descendant.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

A quick note: White hair and gray hair are completely different. Although they both look white at a glance, gray hair isn’t the pure white that this girl has.

“Uh… my pencil?”

Oh right, I almost forgot about that.

“Here you go!”

I slowly picked up the pencil, then handed it back to its owner. You think I’d really do that? No, no, that would mean I was being controlled by the demon. Instead, I picked up the pencil, snapped it in half, and then gently returned it. Dropping a pencil only to get two in return—there’s no one as kind as me.

But instead of thanking me, she quietly took the pencil and turned back around with no expression on her face, her hands trembling as if she were scared. I sighed and chuckled lightly, trying to let it go. After all, I didn’t do the “good deed” expecting any gratitude, ha ha!

“You bitch, are you trying to flirt with my Ajin?”

This was my girlfriend, Aoi. She must’ve noticed that the demon was trying to seduce her boyfriend, so she grabbed her hair and taught her a lesson. Then her friends joined in to do the same.

“N... no. I wasn’t!”

“Weren’t you? It’s obvious, and you’re still denying it! Ajin, are you okay? Let me give her a beating!”

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead, Aoi! This demon is always trying to seduce men!”

One of Aoi’s friends glared at the girl with eyes full of contempt, encouraging Aoi to give her a beating.

And then, as expected, Aoi and her friends took turns giving the witch a lesson for daring to flirt with me. One by one, they yanked her hair and slapped her hard across the face. Don’t worry, I’m a "nice guy," so I just sat back and watched—I didn’t join in.

“Boss, the teacher’s about to come in.”

My friend sitting next to me leaned over and whispered to remind me.

“I know.”

“CLASS, ATTENTION!”

I stood up, hands straight by my sides, and assumed a proper stance before loudly shouting the command.

“Good morning, teacher!”

Oh, I forgot to mention—I’m the class president. Why would a delinquent be made class president, you ask? Don’t be so judgmental—I wanted to contribute and lead the class to success, so I went to each student’s house and had a little "chat" with them before the election!

Even though the teacher had entered the classroom and signaled for us to sit down, Aoi and her friends didn’t care and continued to punish the demon.

“Let’s begin the lesson. Everyone, turn to page 19, lesson 3: The Issue of School Violence in Human Society.”

See? Even the teacher silently supports punishing demons to bring peace to the world. As for Hana, she knew who to protect—humans or monsters.

About 15 minutes later, Aoi and her friends finally got tired and returned to their seats, panting. Despite being beaten to a pulp, with her face red and swollen with handprints, and her hair all messed up from being yanked, the demon still didn’t show any signs of distress—not even a tear, unlike any other girl in her position. Yes, that’s the difference between a demon and a human—emotions.

And so, the lessons passed by peacefully, and the bell signaling the end of the school day rang. The teacher got up, announced the end of class, and left. I packed my stuff into my bag, stood up, and got ready to go home, while my friends planned to hit the gaming café—they were gaming addicts.

“I’m sorry…”

The witch quickly grabbed her bag and rushed out of the classroom, probably afraid of getting beaten up again. Whatever, it’s not my problem—not worth Ajin’s attention.

“Ah!”

A few minutes after the white-haired witch left, a loud thunderclap startled the girls in my class, and the sky suddenly darkened. I didn’t care much and continued packing my stuff, but something felt off. My body wouldn’t move. No matter how hard I tried, nothing happened. I even tried calling out to my friends, but my mouth wouldn’t open. What the hell was going on? I couldn’t even breathe, yet there was no sense of suffocation. This was weird.

Ugh... ugh...

On the podium, a green slime-like substance was slowly rising from the ground.

Wait, what the hell is that? It even has eyes and a mouth!

“Ahem!”

Huh? It can talk too?

“HELLO, EVERYONE!”

The green slime opened

its mouth and shouted.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Slime, pet of Lord Dian—the God of the Underworld. Currently, another world, protected by ten gods, is under threat from the Demon King’s Monster Army. Since the gods cannot directly intervene, they decided to summon and empower heroes to defeat the Demon King on their behalf. And all of you here, 31 of you, have been chosen as the heroes to save that world!”

What am I even listening to? I’ve heard stuff like this before, but only in anime! This is real life—there’s no way I’m dreaming.

“This isn’t a dream, my red-haired friend in the back corner!”

W... what?

Can that creature read minds?

“Not exactly. I can simply observe the intensity of your brain cells' activity and predict what you’re thinking.”

So, basically, you can read minds...

Whatever, if this is real, then fine. On second thought, it sounds kind of fun. I’m tired of going to school in the morning, fighting, then going home. I go home to eat lunch and sleep, come back to school in the afternoon and fight again, go home to eat dinner and sleep, and then wake up the next morning to repeat the cycle...

I need something more exciting than this!

“In a few minutes, you will all be transported to ten different temples in ten separate countries. Each temple will have three members. Don’t worry! You will be warmly welcomed by the church’s priests, with food and lodging already prepared. Your only job is to train to become stronger and then defeat the Demon King to save the world. We’ll handle everything else.”

After saying that, Slime laughed maniacally, and I started to feel a bit scared of him. Not because of his slimy, non-human, non-demon appearance, but because of his deceitfulness—it was really disgusting.

I call him deceitful because who promises others all sorts of good things and then laughs like a lunatic like he did? Whatever comes next definitely won’t be as easy as he said. I’ve been around, met all kinds of people, so I’m sure of it.

A few minutes later, a large circular pattern appeared on the ground. At first, the pattern was black, but as the seconds passed, it brightened and gradually turned yellow. It looked exactly like the magic circles I’d seen before on my gamer friend's phone.

When it had fully turned yellow, the lines on the ground suddenly lit up, and I felt as if my whole body was being pulled from every direction.

Then, I slowly lost consciousness.